


Redheaded Boys

by kirani



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Chirping as Flirting, M/M, Nightmares, Pining, Pre-Relationship, past bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22409752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirani/pseuds/kirani
Summary: Derek Nurse has always had a thing for redheads.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 12
Kudos: 111





	Redheaded Boys

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted this on tumblr as part of #wipitgood and birlcholtz said it sounded like it could be complete as a pre-relationship pining type thing so here we are. Maybe I’ll write the rest later but it’s been a WIP for so long that it’s unlikely at this point.

Derek Nurse has always had a thing for redheads. 

He can wax poetic on the concept of redheads in literature for hours but the simple fact of the matter is that when he was 7 he made a new best friend for one day. His name was Billy and he was a redhead. And he was the kindest boy Derek had ever met.

He had tried to join a game on the playground and been turned away. He didn’t know why, this time, but it was probably just because he was weird. That was usually the reason. 

Derek liked to read and talk to grown-ups and drew “girly” things in his notebooks. 

Billy didn’t care. He played with him that day on the playground and for that day, they were best friends. 

Then Billy’s mom called him to leave and Derek had never seen him again. 

He had hoped Billy was a new kid at school who would be in his class come September, but he wasn’t. He never saw him at the playground again, either. 

So instead of having a new best friend, he just had the terrible kids in his classes who called him names and excluded him from games. 

He dealt with it.

When he went away to Andover for high school, it was a different dynamic. The kids there didn’t make fun of his interests or his smarts, they were all pretty smart and had strange interests. But they were almost all white, which made him feel left out in different ways. 

He perfected his chill exterior there. Nothing could get to him if he didn’t let himself feel anything.

When Derek realized he was gay, his obsession with redheaded boys suddenly became a lot clearer. He didn’t come out at Andover, though. There were already too many things different with him there. 

So he pined after Aidan Fitzpatrick in secret. 

It was only when he gets to Samwell that he allows himself to say it out loud. 

Sure, he’s still in the racial minority, but there are some non-white players on the team and there are some non-straight players and all-in-all he feels safe. 

Even if Dex is a stupid, straight, white boy who won’t listen when he explains that his life is never going to be “easy” just because he has wealthy parents. 

Whatever. It’s fine.

At least he’s cute. 

Especially when Derek gets him riled up and makes him blush.

It’s not until they get paired up to room together on roadies that it happens. 

The nightmares. 

“Hey, hey, calm down. They can’t hurt you anymore.” 

He’s awoken in a strange bed with William Poindexter hovering over him, hand on his shoulder, and worry in his eyes. 

“Sorry,” Derek croaks. 

“Don’t apologize. Do you need anything? Water?” Dex is frowning but in a way that belies his concern, not anger. 

“Water is good.”

It hadn’t been an unusual nightmare, he just didn’t get them that much anymore. The boys in his elementary school teasing him and not letting him escape their surrounding circle. 

He wasn’t sure if they had ever actually surrounded him like that or if it was something his subconscious had created from media consumption, but the dreams were still terrifying. 

Dex came back with a glass of water and he downed it gratefully. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

His face was open and Derek knew he could say anything and have the answer be respected. 

But he didn’t want to talk about it, so he shook his head. 

“Okay.”

Things were different after that. Not very different, but just enough. 

He never asked what he had said in his sleep but Dex seemed to respect his space more now, so it can’t have been nice things. 

He even got a few smiles out of him at Hausgiving. 

He started to wonder what his lips tasted like. 

They still fought, of course. 

Derek was certain they always would. But it was good-natured these days. Bickering. 

They chirped each other and when Chowder whined at them not to fight, please, they just exchanged a sigh. They weren’t really fighting. 

It was kind of nice. 

When they arrived back at Samwell for sophomore year, Derek realized he had even missed Dex’s grumpy face. 

He’s pretty sure that’s when the crush really began. 

It was inconvenient, really. Quite rude. But his subconscious had always had a preference for redheaded boys so he figured it was only a matter of time.

He was out at Samwell, but he wasn’t about to come out about a crush on a teammate. A white, republican, grumpy teammate. 

Nope.

So just like at Andover, he pined in secret. 


End file.
